"I feel so bad for Lord Madara..."
"Yeah. First Hokage-sama got married, had children, and still had his younger brother with him... while Lord Madara ended up all alone..."
"If Lord Madara hadn't been so broad-minded, the Leaf probably never would have been founded at all."
Whispers spread through the theater, filled with sympathy for Madara.
In the film, Haru had shaped Madara into a tragic hero. He started with a happy family, then slowly became a man left completely alone, yet still carried hope in his heart, never forgetting his promise with Hashirama, and continued to walk his own ninja path. In truth, that was not far from reality.
A tragic hero always made people feel regret. Just like Xiang Yu from Haru's previous life in Rabbit Country. Even though he lost to Liu Bang, later generations still could not stop thinking, If only Xiang Yu had...
Even now, people still mourn Xiang Yu for refusing to cross east of the river.
Madara was no exception.
"Do you think Lord Madara left the Leaf because Second Hokage-sama killed his younger brother? What a shame... If Second Hokage-sama had shown mercy back then... clearly..."
"Shh, watch what you're saying. Do you have a death wish?"
"Creak... creak..."
Ninja had sharp ears and keen eyes. Tobirama heard every last whisper in that theater, clear as day. He was grinding his teeth so hard the sound of it came from the back of his jaw.
Haru's intentions were vile.
He was obviously and openly trying to wash Madara clean.
Back then, Madara had been beaten flat by Hashirama. There had never been any "even match" at all.
If Madara had been killed, the rest of the Uchiha would never have mattered.
The Leaf could still have been founded just fine. And yet this damned movie was crediting Madara with the founding of the village. As if everyone else's contributions meant nothing.
It was outrageous.
And these ignorant villagers were even asking why he hadn't spared Izuna.
That had been a life-or-death battle. Either Izuna died, or Tobirama did. There had been no room for compromise.
Most importantly, if Madara was being whitewashed and Hashirama was being painted as a pure white lotus, then who exactly was left as the villain?
Me.
I turned into the villain.
Conspiracy theories were part of human nature. By now, Tobirama could already hear outrageous nonsense forming around him.
While Tobirama fumed in silent outrage, the movie continued.
The scene shifted to an open field. Two giant banners stood on either side, embroidered with the crests of the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan. Madara and Hashirama clasped hands in reconciliation, with the Uchiha behind Madara and the Senju behind Hashirama.
The feud between those two enemies, one that had lasted a thousand years, was finally, at least in part, resolved on that day.
The Uchiha and Senju began building a village from nothing beneath the very same high ground where Madara and Hashirama had once met as children.
With the two clans working together, the village grew more and more prosperous. Later, it even received support from the Fire Daimyo and took on the duty of protecting the Land of Fire. From then on, its development truly took off.
On the high ground
"A leader of ninja who protects the Land of Fire from the shadows... how about calling that person Hokage?"
Hashirama stood at the high point, looking down at the village below, then spoke to Madara.
"The Land of Fire wants us to choose a representative for the village. I want you to take the position of Hokage."
Hashirama invited Madara to become Hokage.
"Even though your brothers are already gone, I hope you can treat the ninja in this village as your own brothers. I hope you can protect everyone."
"I couldn't even protect my own brother, Hashirama. You're better suited to be Hokage than I am."
Madara turned down the offer and voluntarily yielded the position of First Hokage to Hashirama.
"..."
"It's about time we name the village. Got any suggestions?"
"How about calling it Konohagakure... the Hidden Leaf Village?"
"..."
The information packed into those simple scenes was enormous. This was the kind of secret that should have belonged only to the highest levels of the Leaf.
So the name "Leaf" had actually come from Madara.
And Madara had voluntarily given up the position of the first Hokage to Hashirama.
A man who bore all his sorrow alone and still never clung to power. What noble character.
The villagers knew very little about Madara's past. They only knew that he had been an Uchiha ninja, immensely powerful, who had left the village for some unclear reason.
They had never imagined that Madara's life had been this tragic, this brilliant, this noble.
"Lord Madara truly is a model for us all..."
"How could a man like that ever betray the Leaf? Could it really have been Second Hokage-sama..."
"Shh, how are you still saying that? Are you trying to die?"
For a moment, the audience's feeling toward Madara shifted from pity to admiration.
Tobirama was no longer merely grinding his teeth. His whole face had gone red with anger.
You, you, you... if you wanted to praise Madara, then praise Madara. Why did you have to drag me into it too? Madara leaving the Leaf had happened because he lost his mind. What did that have to do with me?
Tobirama glared toward the source of those voices, and what entered his sight was the Uchiha clan crest.
Of course.
An Uchiha.
That explained it. Of course it did. No wonder they were smearing him like this.
Hold it right there, you bastard.
As expected of the Uchiha. Inherently evil.
I'll execute you on the spot and see if you still dare run your mouth afterward.
Haru could tell the old man beside him had been driven to the edge just from watching the film, so he quietly formed a hand seal and seized control of Tobirama's body, forcing him to remain seated and keep watching.
"Tobirama, what are you getting angry about?"
"Isn't it just some harmless joking from the younger members of the clan? The innocent stay clean, the guilty stay stained. Everyone knows whether you ever pushed Madara out or not."
"If your conduct is upright, you don't fear crooked shadows."
You bastard.
Tobirama was too furious to even speak.
He absolutely had pushed Madara out.
But Madara leaving the Leaf had absolutely not been because of him. Well... maybe a little bit, but definitely not mainly because of him.
This was slander.
Blatant slander.
If this kind of rumor really spread, then the spotless image he had spent his entire life building would be ruined. Public opinion was terrifying.
Haru wore a "kind" smile, one that made Tobirama want to punch him right then and there.
You wicked Senju old ghost, Haru thought. The seeds you planted back then are finally bearing fruit. Now sit there and eat the result.
A debt repaid in kind.
As Hokage, Haru might have had respectable roots, descending from one of the Leaf's two original founding families, but there was still a stain on his side too.
Madara, the Uchiha founding shareholder, had ultimately betrayed the Leaf. No matter the reason, the fact of his defection was written in stone. That stain had to be cleaned away.
What was the point of making movies if you didn't slip in some private agenda?
At the very least, Haru had left Tobirama some face.
Otherwise, he could have directly filmed that scene from the original story where Hashirama and Tobirama argued over choosing the Hokage.
That day, Tobirama had directly vetoed Hashirama's wish to make Madara the Hokage.
He had even said, all noble and righteous, that the final decision had to take into account the will of the Land of Fire and the village, and then be settled through discussion with the daimyo.
But when it came to passing down the office himself, he had done something very different. He had simply named Hiruzen on the spot and passed the position of Third Hokage to him as though the title were private property.
Compared to that, Haru's style looked much cleaner. He had actually held a Hokage election. Any ninja in the Leaf who wanted to be Hokage could step forward and fight one-on-one. Whoever was strongest became Hokage.
If Haru had really filmed all of that, Tobirama's reputation would have been utterly ruined. A person could spend an entire lifetime doing good and still be condemned for a single wrong deed.
Haru felt he was actually rather kind. Even though Tobirama wasn't exactly human, constantly pushed out the Uchiha, and practiced racial discrimination against him, Haru had still been magnanimous enough to protect Tobirama's reputation.
Of course, Haru also had a little selfish reason.
If he pushed Tobirama too far, the old man would really go on strike.
And for all the Leaf's development, Tobirama, that super workhorse, was still absolutely indispensable.
The sun shone high in the sky.
Hashirama stood there in the Hokage robe, the words First Hokage embroidered on the back, and in front of all the villagers of the Leaf, he announced the formal founding of Konohagakure and officially took his place as the First Hokage.
And with that, the movie ended.
"That's it?"
"So they never explained why Lord Madara left the Leaf?"
"What more is there to explain? It had to be Tobirama's fault. Didn't First Hokage-sama personally promise Lord Madara that he would become Hokage? And what happened after that?"
"Tobirama became Hokage, and Madara left the Leaf."
"Whoa, seriously? Wait, it's you again. Why are you still saying this? Do you really want to die?"
"What's there to be afraid of? I'm Uchiha."
"Oooh... an Uchiha from Third Hokage-sama's clan. No wonder you're this fearless. So that story about First Hokage-sama promising Lord Madara the position of Second Hokage is really true?"
"Of course it is. That's what the clan elders always said."
"So that's what Second Hokage-sama was really like..."
"..."
Tobirama heard it all and turned green with anger.
Which Uchiha was that? Why was he still slandering him?
And what did he mean, "why are you saying the truth out loud?"
But with Haru controlling him, Tobirama could only sit there and glare viciously at that Uchiha clansman from his chair.
Once the screening was over, Haru led Tobirama out of the theater. Tobirama took several deep breaths of fresh air before his mood steadied at all.
"You bastard. Did you make this movie specifically to smear me?"
Tobirama glared at Haru. It was difficult not to believe Haru had done this on purpose.
The best way to erase the influence of the previous Hokage was naturally to blacken his name. Once someone's reputation was rotten, the influence they had left behind would drift away with the wind.
"How could that be?"
"Why would I ever think such a thing?"
"Was there even one line in the whole film directly smearing you?"
Haru spoke with perfect confidence. He really had not deliberately smeared Tobirama. All he had done was make Madara's image look tall and noble in the eyes of the Leaf.
And besides, Haru had not made anything up.
Everything in that movie was true.
Back then, Madara really had swallowed the pain of Tobirama killing Izuna all by himself, restraining his own urge to kill Tobirama, all for the promise he had made to Hashirama as a child, and so that the children of the Uchiha and Senju would no longer kill each other and could instead live in peace.
"I... guess there wasn't..."
Tobirama tried hard to recall the entire movie and look for evidence that Haru had intentionally blackened him. He found nothing, and his answer came out hesitant and weak.
But Tobirama was a clever man. He quickly realized Haru's real trick.
"You raised Madara up, and through that you blackened me!"
Haru let out a cold snort and replied,
"Hmph, Tobirama. Madara's deeds really were exactly as they were shown in the film. If you got smeared, then you should look for the reason in yourself."
"Didn't you oppose Madara becoming the Second Hokage?"
"And the way you became Second Hokage yourself, do you really not know?"
Tobirama choked on his own words.
Of course he had opposed Madara becoming the Second Hokage to the very end.
Still, he tried to remain stubborn.
"I became the Second Hokage through a proper village-wide election. Unlike you, I didn't seize the position through rebellion."
Haru almost laughed out loud.
Tobirama still had the nerve to bring up the Hokage election?
Haru had become Third Hokage without a single procedural problem. He had stood there openly, won through strength and character, and reached the top properly through the Hokage election.
"Usurpation?"
"You've got some nerve saying that. When you directly named that dead man Hiruzen as Third Hokage, why didn't you think about how you yourself had opposed Madara becoming Second Hokage?"
"If I remember right, you were the one going on and on about how the Hokage should be chosen by the people of the Leaf."
"You were the first one to break the rules."
"That so-called dying wish of yours meant nothing. At most, it should have only given Hiruzen a chance to stand in the next Hokage election. It's not like I didn't give him that chance. He just wasn't good enough and got killed by me."
"And you still dare bark?"
"You inherently evil Senju old ghost!"
Haru's rapid-fire questioning left Tobirama completely speechless.
This really was one thing he had done badly.
It had been an extraordinary situation...
But Tobirama had no face to use that excuse in front of Haru. It would only get him slapped in the face again and mocked for it.
Hmph.
Tobirama turned and walked off, refusing to continue talking with Haru. That wicked Uchiha brat didn't know the first thing about respecting his elders.
"Tobirama, where are you going?"
"Back to the lab to work!"
"Next time, I'm going out by myself. You're too damn unlucky to be around!"
(End of Chapter)
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